From: Signorile@aol.com
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 1996 11:03:50 -0400
Subject: Activists Zap Mikulski
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--PLEASE POST WIDELY
October 11, 1996
For more information: michelangelo signorile
signorile@aol.com
Lesbians and Gays Zap Senator Mikulski at New York Book Signing
Maryland Democrat Called on Pro-DOMA Vote and Closeted Lesbianism
Activists Found ‘National Outing Day’
New York, October 10---On the eve of National Coming Out Day, Senator
Barbara Mikulski was confronted by angry gays and lesbians at a Barnes and
Noble Superstore in Chelsea, a primarily gay and lesbian neighborhood of New
York City, and was forced off the floor of the bookstore, promptly ending a
scheduled appearance.
In New York to promote a mystery novel that she has co-written with Mary
Louise Oates, titled Capitol Offense (published by Dutton, New York),
Mikulski was speaking for no longer than three minutes when the well-known
New York lesbian activist Ann Northrop of ACT UP, sitting eight feet from
Mikulski, stood up. “Senator,” Northrop said, abruptly interrupting. “I did
not come here to listen to you read from your book. I came to ask why, as a
lesbian, you voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). I came to
let you know that I thought your vote on DOMA was shameless and
unconscionable.”
As bookstore security attempted to silence Northrop and as dozens of gay men
and lesbians came onto the scene from every corner of the colossal Sixth
Avenue bookstore, activist and author Michelangelo Signorile rose and began
questioning Mikulski. “Are you a lesbian?” he shouted several times from
eight feet away. A shocked Senator Mikulski refused to answer, as others in
the crowd began yelling. “How can you come here to Chelsea, to our
neighborhood, after your vote on DOMA?” someone screamed. Television talk
show host Brad Lamm stood up told the audience that “the Senator’s vote on
the Denfense of Marriage Act is a disgrace to her office and record!”
Mikulski’s co-author, Oates, began yelling back at the audience, saying she
could not believe that “in this day and age” people would be discussing the
senator’s sexual orientation and would ask such a question of her. She then
accused Signorile of being “anti-lesbian” for asking the question. “I’m not
anti-lesbian,” Signorile shot back. “The Senator is the one who hates
lesbians. She hates herself. She voted against herself, that’s how much she
hates herself. This woman is a lesbian, and she voted against all of us.”
Mikulski stayed silent for the most part, only stating that this is not a
"political forum." Eventually, she walked off the floor, while Oates
continued to defend both herself and the Senator. “I’m on the board of the
HRC, the Human Rights Commission” she said, as people continued to heckle the
Mikulski. It was not certain whether Oates was really referring to the Human
Rights Campaign, the Washington gay group, or to some federal, state or
municipal human rights commission. “I’m going to the Quilt,” she continued.
“I was in the anti-war movement. The Senator has voted in favor of gay and
lesbian civil rights.” The audience was not satisfied. “She voted in favor of
the Defense of Marriage Act, a viciously anti-gay piece of legislation!”
someone in the audience screamed.
“Why don’t you ask me if I’m a lesbian?” Oates then asked repeatedly, in a
strange twist to the already circus-like event. “We don’t care whether or not
you’re a lesbian,” someone finally yelled back. “You’re not the senator.”
When Oates wouldn’t let up with the question, someone finally said, “Okay,
are you a lesbian?” “It’s none of your business,” Oates answered back. “And
that’s how I feel about the issue for everyone, okay? It’s nobody’s
business.”
An audience member rose and said squarely to Oates, “If you’re a Senator
voting against the gay community and you’re a lesbian, then it’s people’s
business.”
Signorile, Northrop, Lamm and several others, including former Outweek
publisher Kendall Queer (who had smuggled a video camera into the store and
taped much of the affair), were escorted out of the store by bookstore
security. Mikulski returned to the floor momentarily, but when members of the
audience, which had by now quadrupled, began sharply questioning her and then
heckling her, she walked off again. Oates then attempted to engage the
audience in a political discussion about “ethics.” But when advertising
executive Andrew Beaver asked about the ethics of a lesbian Senator who votes
for a bill like DOMA, Oates too became exasperated and walked off.
Outside the store, Signorile and Northrop designated October 10 as National
Outing Day. “From this day forward, the day before National Coming Out Day
will be National Outing Day,” Signorile said. “It’s a day to out a favorite
public figure to everyone you know, through e-mail messages, voice mail
messages, notes and letters in the mail, and in casual conversation
throughout the day. And if there happens to be an elected official who voted
anti-gay and who is making a public appearance, it’s a day to go and confront
that person.”
Northrop urged gays and lesbians around the country to check with their
local bookstores and to ckeck with Mikulski’s publishers (Dutton in New York
City) and her office in Washington so as to get her book tour schedule.
“Mikulski should be confronted by lesbians and gay men at every bookstore
appearance in every city she visits,” Northrop said.
--end--